Edison and the Eaton fire

I read with great interest the recent article about Southern California Edison. SCE is without question the worst customer service organization of all time. In fact, they should eliminate both the words customer and service from any description concerning their enterprise. In my neighborhood, we have experienced consistent power outages, both planned and unannounced, often several times a month, over many years. They have given every excuse one could possibly dream up about these outages, with their favorite one being the ravenous squirrel population. Everyone knows these outages are due to their inability to properly maintain their power lines and their refusal to invest in the equipment needed to properly service this area, yet they obfuscate, delay and make promises that go unkept.

Now the tragedy of the Eaton fire puts their ineffective bureaucracy into the spotlight like never before. Management continues to be rewarded with astounding salary packages. It is public information that the CEO’s salary during the last three years averaged almost $14 million annually. He even made almost 20% more in 2024 than he made in 2022. It is shocking that this obviously incompetent individual still has his job. Edison’s Board of Directors and the California Public Utilities Commission should be ashamed of themselves.

They should be providing oversight of this inept management team and holding management responsible for their ongoing service failures. I feel horrible for the citizens of Altadena as they now have paid the ultimate price for the service failures of this incredibly mismanaged company. It will be very interesting to see what transpires next. Perhaps another big raise for this CEO next year is in order.

— Alan Frank, La Canada

The fall of Saigon

I read your fall of Saigon editorial with amusement. Some of the rights pointed out that Vietnamese citizens lack included freedom of expression, only one party, no labor unions, no independent media and no independent judiciary that would provide due process.

Here in the U.S. DEI and civil rights are under assault, the president is suing Act Blue, the National Treasury Employees Union had to go to court so it could continue to represent IRS employees, the TV networks and print journalism are being attacked by the president and the judiciary has been criticized for insisting that everyone receive due process before being deported and judges are even being arrested.

While we’re not Vietnam, we’re trending in that direction.

— Ron Garber, Duarte

To nowhere

Are we all crazy? The former “bullet train” is a huge financial failure! But billions are being paid for a conventional train to nowhere! The “good news” is that fiasco can be built faster because it is much smaller than the failed bullet train.

Why does the California High-Speed Authority continue to exist?

Where’s our governor and Legislature?

Stop this madness! It’s grossly wasteful, if not criminal.

— Joseph F. Paggi Jr., Pasadena

The new car tax

Trump’s policy of implementing tariffs on foreign automobile competitors will not bring back the United States’ automobile industry to the years of market dominance it once enjoyed before the introduction of foreign-made vehicles in the U.S. Trump believes that mediocrity in the design and engineering of U.S. vehicles was not the reason for foreign cars becoming more popular than U.S.-made vehicles, which began in the mid-20th century with the introduction of German, Japanese and Italian cars. He also continues to mention that foreign-made cars and their popularity among U.S. consumers are the result of unfair business practices by foreign manufacturers, but does not elaborate on those unfair business practices. Essentially, Trump doesn’t think American car-buying consumers are smart enough to consider pricing, design, reliability, durability and safety when they purchase vehicles. Trump wants Americans to buy U.S.-made cars because they are made in the U.S. Trump’s obsession with tariffs to make the automobile industry great again is thoughtless, misdirected and wrong.

— Larry Naritomi, Monterey Park